Caverns City
                    On this issue's disk

                      Reviewed by Sue

This adventure features Battune, your friendly alien guide. I
first reviewed it back in Issue 15 of SynTax. That was in November
1991, and here I am, eleven years later, still playing it and
still unable to finish it because I'm stuck in exactly the same
place! Some things never change!

I mentioned last issue that I'd been spurred to load it up again
after being emailed by someone who wanted the solution to a few
Battune games. I realised then I hadn't finished some of them and
thought I'd have another go. Caverns City was the first I tried
... 'tried' being the operative word because I couldn't get it to
SAVE under Me. After much messing about, I finally discovered two
things (1) I had to boot up with a boot disk and run the game from
DOS and (2) it's vital to turn Caps Lock on if the game is going
to recognise any of your inputs.

So, the story. As always you control Battune as he explores a new
environment. This time the aim is to gain a reservation for
Caverns City Hotel. Then defeat the werewolf to get through the
gate. What lies on the other side? I haven't got a clue because
I'm stuck. But more about that in a tick.

Like all the other Battune games I've played, there's a strong 
random element. The locations are arranged randomly which is why 
being able to SAVE is essential. The puzzles and their solutions 
aren't random, fortunately, otherwise there'd be NO chance of 
finishing it. To complete the first part of the game you need 
to give 10 items to 10 people.  To know what to give them, you 
must decipher a cryptic clue eg "man's best friend" means you 
must get a dog collar and give it to someone. This person is 
carrying a white card which has the next clue on it and so on.

Giving the last item gives you the reservation for the hotel and
you enter the second part of the game. This takes place inside the
hotel around the pool, gift shop, manager's office and other
appropriate locations. By solving problems, you will find, in
turn, keys to certain hotel rooms.

The first one is close to hand and the rest are found in sequence. 
Each hotel room contains a guest with a problem - the Lone Ranger 
is tied to a chair, Tonto is fast asleep, a vampire dozes in his 
coffin. One of these involves Frankenstein's monster, where I got 
stuck. It wasn't until I looked back at Issue 15 that I discovered 
I'd got stuck in the self-same place last time. Well, it WAS a long 
time ago. Was I downhearted? A bit. But then I got the idea for a 
new SynTax section ... the SynTax Challenge. I won't say any more 
about it here ... check out the new section under Information.

As far as I got, I enjoyed the game. The random elements could be
frustrating but if you map it well, it isn't a problem. The parser
is old and primitive but gets the job done, and the puzzles work
well. I'm assuming my Frankenstein hold-up is down to me missing
the correct word, not dodgy programming! Over to you, SynTax 
readers!
                              - o -